Leeville Bridge to hike toll rates

The cost to cross the Leeville Bridge will soon go up.The toll rate for the bridge along La. 1 has long been scheduled to increase by 20 percent in the new year.

Xerxes Wilson Staff Writer

The cost to cross the Leeville Bridge will soon go up.The toll rate for the bridge along La. 1 has long been scheduled to increase by 20 percent in the new year.Car and truck drivers pay a $2.50 toll, which would rise to $3. Large trucks with more than six axles would see an increase from $12 to $15. Though the bridge is having financial problems, officials on the Louisiana Transportation Authority Board say it’s unlikely the rates will be raised higher than the 20 percent increase already planned.A legislative audit released last week found that the bridge payment system had been deficient in collecting toll revenue and suggested the bridge could struggle to meet increased financial obligations in the future.“I expect a 20 percent increase because that is what the bond issue prescribes and what is planned,” said state Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton, who is chairman of the board. “I do not expect the toll to go above that.”The Transportation Authority Board will meet Dec. 21 in Baton Rouge. The meeting’s agenda calls for a discussion of the tolls and includes a resolution that the Louisiana Transportation Authority not raise the toll further than 20 percent.Benton said he met with officials from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development earlier this week and there was no mention of a larger increase.LADOTD spokesperson Jodi Conachen said a “thorough discussion” of the toll is planned for the meeting, and the agenda is still being developed. She also noted the board has universal right to set tolls.The 20 percent increase that will take place in January has been planned since the bridge was built and is mandated to service the debt incurred building bridge.The bridge stretches from Leeville, south of Golden Meadow, runs across 10 miles of wetlands to Fourchon, serving as a vital link to Port Fourchon.The legislative audit pinpointed a number of issues with the bridge’s toll collections.The audit found about 300,000 travelers were allowed free passage without receiving a violation notice in the three years tolls have been charged. It also found out-of-state violators were not billed through fiscal year 2012, and there is no function to request updated credit card information from Geauxpass accounts.Earlier this year, Fitch Ratings downgraded a $60 million bond that helped finance the bridge to junk bond status.The bond is completely reliant on toll revenue for repayment, but failures in the previous toll system caused the bridge to miss 20 to 30 percent of the revenue it should collect, according to a statement from the ratings agency. The agency noted the collection rate for the toll was well below industry standards at 70 percent.Henri Boulet, director of the La. 1 Coalition which lobbies for improvements to the highway, said a new toll collection system instituted this summer has brought the toll collection “capture rate” up to the industry standard. LADOTD Secretary Sherri LeBas mostly agreed with the audit’s findings and listed corrective actions in a written response to the audit. Boulet said the officials are looking to refinance part of the debt to help the bridge meet its financial burden in coming years.